It is a saturated five-membered heterocycle with non-adjacent S and O atoms.

The parent compound is of little practical value, but there is some biotechnological interest in derivatives where one or more H atoms are replaced by other substituents.

[1] The compound is prepared by condensation of mercaptoethanol with formaldehyde, as typical for synthesis of thioacetals.

[3] In contrast to the well-developed area of 1,3-oxathiolanes, 1,2-oxathiolane and its derivatives are not prevalent in the literature.

The parent compound, which is derived from 3-mercaptopropanol, has been detected in solution [4] A bulky derivative has been characterized by X-ray crystallography.